It's been an overall positive and speedy process in the UK after experiencing many delays between applying and being medically triaged etc. Happy to say that I'll be doing PJFT and PRMC soon. I know the struggles and doubts overseas applicants can have in the process leading up to walking into the careers office for the first time.

This forum proved to be an invaluable asset for me and I'd love to return the favour of providing as much information as possible to anyone applying from overseas. There's still much to be done before starting the 32 weeks in Lympstone but I feel that a large portion of the bureaucratic hurdles in the application are now behind me. So please - if you need any help or advice - ask away!

First of all congrats on passing everything so far got a few questions, How long has the whole process taken you so far and are you permanently based in the UK at the moment or flying between the UK and SA? Also how long did you residency waiver and security clearance take to come through and what was the whole process like being an oversea's applicant?

I can help here a bit as well - I start recruit training on the 18th Of June and have been in the UK since mid January. Try and get all paper work for security clearance in as soon as possible as it can take awhile. If you stay on top of everything and pass PJFT and PRMC first time you can look at about 6 months once you have arrived in the UK. Drop me a message and we can chat on whats app if you have any questions

Just curious did you all come to the UK on visas? Ive been here for near on 5 years on an ancestral visa and just waiting for my ILR so I can join, would be gutted if I didn't have to wait all of this time :/

First of all congrats on passing everything so far got a few questions, How long has the whole process taken you so far and are you permanently based in the UK at the moment or flying between the UK and SA? Also how long did you residency waiver and security clearance take to come through and what was the whole process like being an oversea's applicant?

Regards,

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I filled out the online application form in January but there were major problems with the online portal so I decided to email the overseas desk directly and ask for an application. The careers adviser in charge of overseas advised on how to speed the process up and sent me all the relevant paperwork.
At this stage, obtaining police clearance took the longest out of everything. Had to book an appointment to have my fingerprints taken and the South African police took a sweet 6 weeks to print a single piece of paper saying I have no convictions. Although this was frustrating at the time - it was definitely worth it as it contributes to speeding up security clearance later on. You can't do this without physically being in South Africa so do it as soon as possible.

It was made explicitly clear to me to not book any flights to The UK before being successfully medically triaged - which is the next step after sending the requested paperwork VIA POST to the UK. Once my documents had been couriered overseas and received, I was booked in for my triage phonecall a month later. A few days before my booking, it was postponed, then postponed again. After finally having the phonecall, I was made TMU and was required to go to my doctor to get prescription history and prove that a previous illness was not chronic. I sent this medical history in to CAPITA via email and they took a good week or two to reply with "your case will be reviewed in two weeks time". They reviewed it and requested even more medical history from my dermatologist. Yet another "your case will be reviewed on xx/xx/2018" The date came and went and I received no communication for another three weeks or so. Eventually they sent an email saying I had been successfully triaged. Booked a one way ticket and sorted out my final affairs in SA.

Security clearance only comes after completing the interview - I've been told it should be completed by a month or so from now seeing as all my paperwork is already in order. The residency waiver is not something you should be worried about as the overseas AFCO will fill it out and submit it on your behalf along with photocopies of all the paperwork you're asked to bring with to NSRT.
Security clearance involves completing a long series of questions through an online link sent to you the day you pass your interview. You may have to ask your family some questions about their personal histories etc. and the clearance form can take up to several hours to fill out. Once you've done this, a background check will be completed which is out of your hands and as I said - will probably take about one month. This doesn't slow you down as you can book a PJFT in the mean time and start planning dates for PRMC.

I was told that many overseas applicants choose to return to their home countries either before doing a PRMC or before picking a date to start recruit training - but it is definitely a viable option to remain in The UK if you have accommodation sorted.

I don't envision it taking anywhere near 6 months from now and I only arrived in country fairly recently - so maybe ask @rovers915 about his specific situation in that regard.

I'm not sure about the forum policy of publicly naming careers advisers - but the Chief Petty Officer in charge of the overseas desk has been an absolute champion throughout this whole process. He has the ability to move mountains for you if you express interest in joining as soon as possible and you communicate politely and efficiently with him. If you don't already have an AFCO assigned to you, I would suggest calling the overseas help desk and giving him your email address.

Hope this helps - if you have questions about NSRT, face to face medical or the interview, I'll be happy to write another essay (haha) explaining all that I've learned.

Just curious did you all come to the UK on visas? Ive been here for near on 5 years on an ancestral visa and just waiting for my ILR so I can join, would be gutted if I didn't have to wait all of this time :/

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Lucky enough that my father got me my UK passport when I was a wee lad.

6 weeks for a police check is a fair amount of time I managed to get mine in Australia in 7 days thankfully.

How was the medical and interview?

Cheers again.

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The joys of a government that runs on African time, something I've had to deal with my whole life!

The medical is no problem and you should have a 90% chance of passing it if you passed the triage and were truthful in your answers. You can expect a breathing test (breathe into a tube to show lung power of a single breath); blood pressure check; dental check; hearing test (takes the longest out of everything - listen for faint beeps); colourblindness test; walk on your heels; walk in a straight line; walk on the outside edge of your feet; duck walk; 3 push ups done to RM standard; wink with your left eye; height and weight measurement and a few questions about your training routine.

The interview is broken up into parts with mostly questions pertaining to your family life, education, sports and hobbies, employment history, awards and achievements, personal motivations for joining, questions about how much you've been training so far, your attitude towards narcotics - and quite importantly, whether you know what the 32 weeks training entails and naming the 4 commando tests and the required time and distance of each. There will also be a few corps knowledge questions scattered throughout the interview. I was asked about the corps motto and what it means, how certain elements of the badge came to be, where certain commando units are based and what they do and a bit of general chat about currently active Navy ships etc. I spent a lot of time studying important battles and dates and Victoria Cross recipients as well. There are some example questions for this pinned in the "royal marines history and knowledge" forum on this site.